Few researchers and policy makers take into account the historical and regional construction of relations between producers and other actors in the agri-food chain in their agricultural sector analyses. The management difficulties experienced by "new" farmers on the island of São Tomé, when they received cocoa-producing lands individually after being salaried employees, demonstrate the influence of the past. A study was made using comprehensive surveys of the actors in a new chain of organic cocoa, compared to some actors in the traditional chain. The cocoa farmers involved have had to organize in order to fulfil a contract that connects their cooperative of several communities with a French chocolate company. Those producers have had difficulty adapting to the conditions of a mutual contract. However, little by little, they have begun to compensate for individual and collective lack of initiative with a sociotechnical and organisational learning process, as an outline for emancipation toward more sociotechnical sustainability.